134 THE MORAL ASPECT OF 



political corruption, have sought a refuge in a noble inner 

 life ; but that inner life itself is a gift of social institutions, 

 and, severed from them, falls into inevitable decay. Even 

 Christianity, with all its sublime ardour for the spiritual 

 life of the individual, contributed to the corruption of the 

 ancient world in so far as it released its adherents from the 

 obligations of citizenship. For in a man's relations to his 

 neighbours in the State lie the conditions of all the 

 virtues. 



But there is a deeper wrong to the State than even this 

 disregard of the obligations of citizenship. It is that of 

 turning the privileges of citizenship against the principle 

 from which they have sprung, and perverting the powers 

 of the State to private uses. And this, unfortunately, is a 

 wrong not unknown in our own day and country. From 

 direct corruption and misappropriation of the criminal 

 kind we are now happily free, at least in comparison with 

 other times. But men will do in the interests of their 

 class what they would scorn to do directly in their own. 

 Sustained by the consciousness of the common ends of 

 a class, men otherwise estimable in the eyes of their neigh- 

 bours become unconscious enemies of the public weal. 

 Disregarding the fact that the State is the common 

 guardian of all just interests, and that its stability and 

 strength depend upon its power to reconcile those interests 

 in one harmonious whole, seeing no wrongs except those 

 of their own industrial or religious sect, and devoted to no 

 other rights, they press these blindly upon the State. In 

 doing so they strike at the heart of the common good, no 

 matter who aims the blow, nor for what abstract cause. For 

 when we see a class of men, be they the aristocracy or the 

 common people, capitalists or working men, or the blind 



